Kershaw Tie Crane

[C855B]

"Too difficult for modelers to accurately drill tiny holes in the models."

Huh? Then what am I doing with this box of reground #92 drills on my bench? No, that's not everybody's cup of tea, but... still. I've been drilling tiny holes since the 1960's. Hasn't everybody? 

Bob's mention of tin/silver solder working for SS has me intrigued. I just instinctively thought that SS could only be worked with inert gas welders. I have a spool of Sn/Ag/Pb on the bench... might be worth messing with.

[peteski]

"Too difficult for modelers to accurately drill tiny holes in the models."

Huh? Then what am I doing with this box of reground #92 drills on my bench? No, that's not everybody's cup of tea, but... still. I've been drilling tiny holes since the 1960's. Hasn't everybody? 

Bob's mention of tin/silver solder working for SS has me intrigued. I just instinctively thought that SS could only be worked with inert gas welders. I have a spool of Sn/Ag/Pb on the bench... might be worth messing with.

You really need strong acidic flux which will remove the layer of oxide which makes the steel stainless.  At that point any solder will stick.  It is messy and in my experience the solder does not wet the steel as readily as brass (so I don't get the wicking action which results in very clean joints in brass).

As for the mirrors, yes, the only option i have is to glue them to the surface.

[C855B]

You really need strong acidic flux which will remove the layer of oxide which makes the steel stainless.  At that point any solder will stick. ...

Ahhhhhh... so that's it. Clearly I was asleep in metallurgy class... I just thought what made it SS was high carbon and small bits of a couple of other metals like nickel. So what inert gas welding does is prevent apparently super-fast reoxidation under all that heat.

So the corrosive flux is important because is stays on the to-be-joined area etching things away until burnt off by the solder flowing into the "cleaned" surfaces. Huh! Funny the stuff one learns around here.

[peteski]

Funny the stuff one learns around here.

I'm no expert either - just repeating what I've heard/read/experienced.
Carbon in steel is for strenght. Stainless is made with chromium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel

http://www.wikihow.com/Solder-Stainless-Steel

[wazzou]

"Too difficult for modelers to accurately drill tiny holes in the models."

Huh? Then what am I doing with this box of reground #92 drills on my bench? No, that's not everybody's cup of tea, but... still. I've been drilling tiny holes since the 1960's. Hasn't everybody? 

I think it's more the spacing of two drilled holes matching the spacing of the lugs.  It's certainly not improbable but not the easiest thing either.

[peteski]

I think it's more the spacing of two drilled holes matching the spacing of the lugs.  It's certainly not improbable but not the easiest thing either.

Yes, that is true.  The mounting pegs themselves (on the mirror assembly) could be pushed into the surface of the cab to mark the spots to be drilled.  Not a rocket science. But I resigned myself that there are no mounting pegs.  I must not be an average modeler... 

[ljudice]

In all honesty, I'd much prefer the cabs were cast pewter.

I seriously doubt I have an interest in cutting, gluing - much less soldering the cab together.

Perhaps both parts could be included so clods like myself would actually build the things...

[peteski]

I had another email exchange with Walther from Showcase miniatures about stainless steel vs. brass photo etched parts (this time in the Shay kit).  Here is what he stated:

There are a couple of reasons for the stainless etchings in the Shay kit.  First of all, I am completely sold on using stainless over brass as much as possible because of its strength.  We have a few kits that need the flexibility of soft brass (the signal hoods and Wigwag frames) but many of our parts benefit from the natural look of stainless and don't even require painting.  While soldering metal kits is probably the most durable and permanent solution, I've found that a properly done CA joint can be just as secure with much less equipment expense and expertise required.  This appeals greatly to me and probably many if not most of our customers.

[CrazyLynx]

Anyone know when these were first put into service?

Anybody has an answer?  I'm curious as well.

[Scottl]

I have the kit in hand and it appears to be made and designed to the typical high standards of Showcase.   I lean towards preferring stainless here, as the parts are very fragile looking and brass would bend easily.  I agree with Walter that the majority are probably assembling these with CA.

[peteski]

I have the kit in hand and it appears to be made and designed to the typical high standards of Showcase.   I lean towards preferring stainless here, as the parts are very fragile looking and brass would bend easily.  I agree with Walter that the majority are probably assembling these with CA.

Yup, I happen to be i a small minority of modelers who prefer soldering the photo-etched parts whenever possible.   

[wbvrail]

Hello guys..

Just wanted to say that we really appreciate all of the comments and suggestions we receive at Showcase Miniatures - thanks!  We try our best to accommodate as many of them as possible and apologize for those that remain unmet.  We are always pushing the envelope in the design process to create detailed models that are accurate to their prototypes while trying to keep the assembly as easy as possible.  Our choice of materials for the kits is directly related to these factors so I thought I might address one of the related comments here:

Stainless vs. Brass Photo Etch:

Personally, I prefer to use stainless as much as possible because of its strength.  In regard to our etched side view mirrors, I thought about adding the pegs to the mirrors but drilling the soft metal cabs in exactly the right place can be problematic sometimes.  A very sharp (new) drill bit of the right size is just about necessary and, since we use stainless to make a "pre-finished" product that doesn't require painting, removing the peg can be difficult without damaging the etching.  Weighing the pros and cons, we decided that surface glueing would be the best and simplest solution.  As for the cabs, we have been working on a way to place glazing in the windows for these parts and found what we think is an easy solution that we describe in the instructions for the Tie Crane.  This method would not work very well with soldering the parts.  So far, we have had only one customer say that they prefer brass over stainless but this does not mean that we won't use brass parts in upcoming kits - that decision is based entirely on what we feel will best suit the model currently in design.  We have also considered Lou's suggestion for a cast pewter cab and that may be offered as an option too.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions - we are listening...

Walter

[Scottl]

Thanks Walter for your comments.   I have both of the MOW kits and some other truck kits and they have all been very well designed for assembly and appearance.  I hope you have more MOW equipment in the works- they are really great items.

[randgust]

Now that we've confirmed that you're watching.....

One beef that I do have with most of the vehicle and MOW kits is the lack of timeline.   We're still back to the issue of when that tie crane (and for me, the ballast regulator) date to, as well as all the neat hirail trucks.    They look too modern to me as I'm doing the 70's, but frankly, I can't tell.  I've got plenty of shots of Ford and International vehicles on PC during that period, maybe I could just swap out a cab to an older one.  Or maybe not.

One thing I am glad to see on the new kit is much better guidance on painting.  That and some prototype photos available at least on the website would make things a lot better.   There's a lot of beautiful truck models out there but you can spend more time finding decent photos than actually building the model.

I'm a huge cast metal vehicle fan and get every one that I can possibly get that's time-appropriate and can possibly justify on what highway and parking space I have.